CHARLOTTESVILLE (WINA) – Mayor Nikuyah Walker is receiving national attention, and has had advertising and live privileges on Facebook suspended for 30 days, after a post with vulgar language equating the city to a rapist. The Mayor spent much of Wednesday morning into afternoon mocking the Facebook decision and accusing Charlottesville’s white community of trying to railroad her as a black leader. The posts came after Tuesday’s 3-hour City Council work session discussing directives for city staff to draw up a proposal for city spending and credit card use.
About 2-hours-42-minutes into the work session, the mayor took exception to proposals from councilors Lloyd Snook and Heather Hill that councilors be alerted to speakers another councilor pays to speak to the city. Councilors directed staff to include an allowance for councilors to spend on city business as they see fit.
Snook stated he was “appalled” Mayor Walker paid gift cards to October 19 speaker and climate activist Pamela Boyce Sims, and then mischaracterized some of what Sims said. Walker accused Snook of failing to understand what Sims was saying in regard to what the city needs in a Climate Action plan. Hill said she would only like council to be alerted beforehand to a paid speaker a councilor brings in, not for approval or disapproval, but to just be in the loop. Walker replied that this narrative should not be just about her, and that Hill has brought speakers in without prior notice. Those speakers, however, have not been compensated with city funds.
Mayor Walker has expressed anger at the way her using credit cards to purchase gifts cards to compensate speakers she has brought in has been questioned. She said in a February Facebook “Politickin’ With Nikuyah” live feed she received a call from another councilor that an emergency Council meeting needed to be held after a memo from acting City Attorney Lisa Robertson said some purchases by a councilor using a city credit card appeared improper, and Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania was looking into it. Platania said later there was never a criminal investigation, and that he has been requesting for two years the city put together a spending and credit card use policy, and training, that does not exist now. He says there is no policy, so he cannot prosecute anyone for intentionally misspending city funds.
Walker said in her Facebook live she has been doing this for two years, and no one has had a conversation with her about it. She said “helpful would have been” someone coming to her first suggesting the expenditures were wrong. Instead, she said a memo was issued to Council from the acting City Attorney that was taken to “the top cop”. She believes a white city power structure is trying to take out another black leader, and that the timing of all this is purposely brought up in the year she may seek re-election.
A year ago last month, Walker said she would seek re-election. However, last month, she told WINA there’s a chance she might not run citing priorities in her life since her grandmother died in December.
